You might remember that a while back I had a series called “Successful Women in Real Estate Investing”. How I love success stories. I especially loved shining the spotlight on those women that are true stand outs in the field of real estate investing. Hearing their individual responses to the 4 questions gave everyone a huge insight into not only into their businesses, but their personal way of doing business. It also filled the women reading that series with possibility.

Now It's the Guys' Turn for “Success Stories in Real Estate Investing”

Beginning today I have another round of “Success Stories in Real Estate Investing”, and it’s the “guys turn”. In the upcoming weeks, I will have one of these superstar investors dive into 5 questions that are specifically aimed providing answers for at newer investors.

Justin Williams of House Flipping HQ is in the spotlight today. Justin's company rehabs over 100 houses a year. He is a true business builder. If you are looking to build a business that is profitable and one where you can step out of the daily grind, here is someone that has actually done that.

The 5 Questions

Here are the 5 questions each of these real estate investors will be answering:

What are the top 3-4 things a brand new investor should focus on initially?

What is the best marketing advice you can give someone just starting out?

What factors do you attribute your success to?

Is there something you wish you had done sooner or done differently when you first started your business?

Do you have any tips for newbies for managing their mindset during those inevitable “ups and downs”?

Up First…. Justin Williams from House Flipping HQ

Justin is one of the true success stories in real estate investing when it comes to building a business. Check out what he has to say below.

1. What are the top 3-4 things a brand new investor should focus on initially?

There are basically two things that a brand new investor should focus on: deal analysis and buying strategies. These are the two key fundamentals for any house flipper, wholesaler or real estate investor and just having these two skills dialed in is enough to make you money in this industry.

There are 5 steps to deal analysis: Estimating the ARV (After Repair Value), estimating repairs, determining closing and holding costs, determining your offer, and calculating your offer. With buying strategies, these include direct marketing (bandit signs, yellow letters, door-to-door, driving for dollars, searching on the MLS, etc.), understanding negotiating and being able to communicate with sellers, using creativity to come up with solutions to any problems or barriers that come up, and getting properties under contract.

Again, these are the FUNDAMENTAL skills you need to have, regardless of the specific avenue of real estate investing you plan to go in. So, get these down and know them like the back of your hand so you can start your business off right!

2. What is the best marketing advice you can give someone just starting out?

Face your fears. I see new investors avoiding the uncomfortable tasks in favor of “busy work” all the time. And if you can do the things you are most afraid of, that will increase the rate at which you can build your business. There is a direct correlation between how uncomfortable you are and how successful you become.

Think about it this way: right now as a new investor you could focus on putting together a buyer’s list, you could work on setting up an LLC or S Corp, or you could knock on doors in your farm area. Which of those is the most uncomfortable? And which one of those will have a direct impact on the number of properties you will get under contract? That’s right. They’re the same one — knocking on doors.

So get out there and tackle the hard stuff, because that is the best thing you could do, not just in terms of marketing, but for your entire future in real estate.

3. What factors do you attribute your success to?

There is one main thing that I would attribute my success to, and that is my ability to fail forward fast. As I said in #2 above, fear is the one thing that holds most of us back from success. But whether it’s because I was born with a thick skull, or maybe I just got over it after going through a lot of challenges in business, but I now work to deliberately take massive action and accept that failure is a part of the equation.

The faster you move forward, not getting caught up by the paralysis of analysis, and embrace the fact that you’re going to make a ton of mistakes — the faster you will learn from those experiences and grow. You can NOT move forward unless you stumble and fall. There is no investor out there who had a perfect career with no “house flipping horror stories” under their belt.

The faster you can move to get those experiences, and LEARN from them, the faster you will build your business and start bringing in deals and money.

4, Is there something you wish you had done sooner or done differently when you first started your business?

To be honest, I don’t really have any regrets. Even when I paid tens of thousands of dollars on “guru” education courses without getting much actionable information in return, or when I was promised certain things and didn’t get them, I don’t have any desire to go back and change them. They are all part of the experiences that made me the investor I am today, so they are as valuable to me as any success I’ve had.

Regrets are a symptom of having a backward-facing mentality when it comes to life and business. And if you want to succeed in either you need to always be looking forward, taking each experience and asking yourself what you can learn from it to take new actions in the future to change your outcomes for the better.

5. Do you have any tips for newbies for managing their mindset during those inevitable “ups and downs”?

Aside from what I said above about facing fears, embracing failure and looking forward, I think the most important thing is to not get caught up in the day-to-day results, but always look at the big picture of what you’re doing.

Part of that is related to focus. You need to focus your mind and energy on the ACTIONS you need to take to get results. Whether or not the results happen is almost not as important as taking the right actions to push your business forward.

A lot of people are goal and results-focused, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t have goals or want specific results. They’re important too. But even more important is focusing on the actions you need to take. Set goals for your actions, not the results. Because, while you can’t guarantee that everyone you talk to is going to want to sell you their house, you can ABSOLUTELY guarantee that if you talk to enough people, eventually ONE of them will. So, make the goal to talk to as many people as possible, rather than to buy houses.

Because buying houses is a result of how many people you talk to, not the other way around. Focus your energy on (smart, intelligent) actions and the success will follow.

My Thanks to Justin

Thanks so much to Justin Williams for taking the time to participate in this series, “Success Stories in Real Estate Investing “. Justin is a master at creating systems that allow him to flip over 100 houses each year “hands off”. He is also a great blogger, mentor and coach.

If you are not already subscribed to the “Inner Circle”, be sure to do that today so you don’t miss any of the business building tips I have coming your way. I want this year to be your best year ever! And if you enjoyed this article, please share it.